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    Blinken postpones his Beijing trip after a Chinese balloon is spotted over Montana

    China's foreign ministry described the balloon as "a civilian airship" for meteorological research that had blown far off course by winds. The Pentagon suspects it's collecting sensitive information.
    by Rachel Treisman Feb 03, 2023 6 minutes
    President Biden and China's President Xi Jinping meet on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Bali in November 2022.
    Updated February 3, 2023 at 11:32 AM ET

    The U.S. State Department says Secretary Antony Blinken has postponed his trip to Beijing amid concerns about a Chinese surveillance balloon flying over U.S. airspace.

    The Pentagon said Thursday it had "very high confidence" that the high-altitude surveillance balloon came from China and is being used to collect information from sensitive sites.

    China's foreign affairs ministry confirmed on Friday that the balloon is theirs, but called it a "civilian airship used for research, mainly meteorological purposes," that had gone off course by accident.

    "Affected by the Westerlies and with limited self-steering capability, the airship deviated far from its planned course," it said in a statement. "The Chinese side regrets the unintended entry of the airship into US airspace due to force majeure. The Chinese side will continue communicating with the US side and properly handle this unexpected situation caused by force majeure."

    Pentagon spokesperson Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder pushed back on that assertion at a , saying U.S. officials know that the balloon is for surveillance purposes and has a payload attached for surveillance capability.

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